07/30/2025
Congratulations to the SS KEEWATIN! This weekend SSHSA will present the coveted Museum Ship of the Year award, an honor bestowed on only one vessel annually.
Built in 1907 by Fairfield Works in Glasgow, Scotland, SS KEEWATIN was designed for the Canadian Pacific Railways continental route linking C.P.'s Owen Sound depot to Fort William Port Arthur on Lake Superior, before moving to Port McNicoll, Ontario in 1912. With Port McNicoll established as the new 'super port' and rail terminus, SS KEEWATIN took two and a half days to make the trip each way, including half a day traversing the Soo Locks.
In the last fifteen years of her working life, KEEWATIN operated under stringent regulations for wooden cabin steamships following the NORONIC disaster in 1949. She worked from 1907 to 1965 and never missed a sailing. Then, in order to continue service, rebuilding of the wooden superstructures was required. Instead, she was withdrawn from the passenger trade on November 29, 1965. The following year KEEWATIN operated a freight–only service, but in fall of 1966, she was sold for demolition.
Fortunately, before scrapping, in January 1967 KEEWATIN was rescued by Michigan entrepreneur Roland J. Peterson Sr. He operated her as the Keewatin Maritime Museum for 45 years, docked in Douglas, Michigan, across the river from the popular summer resort town of Saugatauk.
In 2011, Skyline Investments purchased the ship, and later, she was relocated to her original Port in Canada as a tourist attraction. After several years of uncertainty, in 2023, SS KEEWATIN was towed to her new home at the Great Lakes Museum in Kingston, Ontario, and opened in Spring 2024.
Today, she remains a unique Edwardian era Steamship, with an authentic quadruple expansion reciprocating engine, working steering gear and windlass. Of 3,800 similar ships in Great Britain between 1900 and 1920, she is the only remaining restored example in the world.
